1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to an advertisement information providing system including a store, an advertisement provider, and an information terminal owned by the user.
2. Description of the Related Art
To attract customers, a general store, a commercial installation, a tourist installation, etc. pay a predetermined advertisement charge to a publisher publishing a map information magazine, etc., so as to advertise the store, etc., in the map information magazine, etc. Recently, a vehicle-installed or portable navigation system in which position information of a store, etc., is registered and can be referenced by the user to determine the destination or the route has become widespread.
However, although a store or a tourist installation pays a comparatively high advertisement charge for publishing an advertisement, whether or not the user sees the advertisement and visits the stores or the tourist installation cannot be known and therefore means for knowing the advertisement effect of attracting customers responsive to the advertisement is not available. In the navigation system, it is also considered that advertisement information together with the position information of a store, etc., is displayed for producing the effect of attracting customers. In such a system, however, hitherto an appropriate advertisement information providing system has not been available. That is, thioester, etc., cannot easily check or keep track of the advertisement effect of attracting customers responsive to the advertisement; this is a problem.
The user uses the navigation system to set the destination; with almost all types of current navigation systems, the user points to the destination directly on a map appearing on a display screen or enters the address or the telephone number of the destination, and the input operation is burdensome. Further, the publisher or advertisement agency wants to set a high advertisement charge to obtain a profit, but the price of the information magazine itself needs to be lowered to enhance the purchasing power of the user.
It is therefore an object of the invention to provide an information terminal and an advertisement information providing system for making it possible for the advertisement client of a store, etc., to easily know the advertisement effect of attracting customers to the advertisement object.
It is another object of the invention to provide an information terminal and an advertisement information providing system for making it possible to bill and pay the expense responsive to the advertisement effect and to carry an advertisement with excellent cost effectiveness.
To solve the problems described above, according to the invention, there is provided an advertisement information providing system comprising an advertisement providing apparatus for collectively managing advertisement information requested by stores to be carried, with an identification number assigned for each of the stores, and a navigation terminal for guiding a mobile unit, characterized in that the advertisement providing apparatus comprises providing means for providing the advertisement information for the user and reception means for receiving a signal sent from the navigation terminal, and that the navigation terminal comprises an input section for inputting the advertisement information, a guide section for guiding a mobile unit to the corresponding store based on the advertisement information, and a transmitter for sending an arrival notification signal to the advertisement providing apparatus when the mobile unit arrives at a point in a predetermined area containing the store.
The invention is characterized by the fact that in the advertisement information providing system, the identification number in the advertisement information contains geometrical position information of the store.
The invention is characterized by the fact that in the advertisement information providing system, the navigation terminal further comprises an extraction section for extracting the geometrical position information from the advertisement information, and the guide section guides the mobile unit based on the geometrical position information extracted by the extraction section.
The invention is characterized by the fact that in the advertisement information providing system, the identification number in the advertisement information contains a code number assigned uniquely to the advertisement providing apparatus.
The invention is characterized by the fact that in the advertisement information providing system, the navigation terminal further comprises an extraction section for extracting the code number from the advertisement information, and the transmitter sends the arrival notification signal to the advertisement providing apparatus corresponding to the extracted code number based on the code number.
The invention is characterized by the fact that in the advertisement information providing system, the providing means contained in the advertisement providing apparatus is a paper medium.
The invention is characterized by the fact that in the advertisement information providing system, the providing means contained in the advertisement providing apparatus is an advertisement information terminal storing the advertisement information.
The invention is characterized by the fact that the advertisement information providing system further comprises a portable information terminal through which the advertisement information can be input, the portable information terminal comprising an acquisition section for acquiring the advertisement information from the advertisement information terminal and transmission means for transmitting the advertisement information to the navigation terminal.
The invention is characterized by the fact that the advertisement information providing system further comprises store equipment managed by each of the stores, wherein the store equipment comprises electronic payment means and transmission means, wherein the portable information terminal comprises electronic payment means, and wherein when the electronic payment means contained in the store equipment and the electronic payment means contained in the portable information terminal communicate with each other for conducting electronic payment, the transmission means of the store equipment or that of the portable information terminal sends a purchase notification signal to the advertisement providing apparatus.
The invention is characterized by the fact that the advertisement information providing system further comprises store equipment managed by each of the stores, wherein the advertisement providing apparatus comprises cooperation money billing means, wherein the store equipment comprises charge processing means, wherein when receiving the arrival notification signal, the advertisement providing apparatus bills cooperation money for the store, and wherein the store equipment performs charge processing as the cooperation money is billed.
To solve the problems described above, according to the invention, there is provided a navigation terminal for guiding a mobile unit based on advertisement information published by an advertisement providing apparatus for collectively managing the advertisement information requested by stores to be carried, with an identification number assigned for each of the stores, the navigation terminal comprising an input section for inputting the advertisement information, a guide section for guiding a mobile unit to the corresponding store based on the advertisement information, and a transmitter for sending an arrival notification signal to the advertisement providing apparatus when the mobile unit arrives at a point in a predetermined area containing the store.
The invention is characterized by the fact that in the navigation terminal, only the identification number assigned in the advertisement information can be input through the input section.
The invention is characterized by the fact that the navigation terminal further comprises an extraction section for extracting the geometrical position information from the identification number, wherein the guide section guides the mobile unit based on the geometrical position information in the identification number.
The invention is characterized by the fact that the navigation terminal further comprises an extraction section for extracting the geometrical position information from the advertisement information, wherein the guide section guides the mobile unit based on the geometrical position information in the identification number.
To solve the problems described above, according to the invention, there is provided an advertisement information terminal contained in an advertisement providing apparatus for collectively managing advertisement information requested by stores to be carried, the advertisement information terminal comprising database storage means for adding an identification number assigned for each of the stores and containing geometrical position information of the store to the advertisement information for storage, selection means for selecting the advertisement information, and transmission means for transmitting the selected advertisement information.
The invention is characterized by the fact that in the advertisement information terminal, the identification number is a number that can be recognized as destination information in a navigation terminal.
To solve the problems described above, according to the invention, there is provided a record medium storing a program for causing a navigation terminal to execute a guiding step of guiding a mobile unit to a store based on identification information in advertisement information published by an advertisement providing apparatus for collectively managing the advertisement information requested by stores to be carried, with an identification number assigned for each of the stores, and a sending step of sending an arrival notification signal to the advertisement providing apparatus when the mobile unit arrives at a point in a predetermined area containing the store.
The invention is characterized by the fact that in the record medium, the program causes the navigation terminal to execute the additional step of terminating the program when the arrival notification signal is sent in the sending step.
To solve the problems described above, according to the invention, there is provided an advertisement information providing system comprising an advertisement providing apparatus for collectively managing advertisement information requested by stores to be carried, with an identification number assigned for each of the stores, communication common carrier equipment with base stations placed for each predetermined area, and a portable information terminal making a predetermined contract with the communication common carrier managing the communication common carrier equipment, characterized in that the advertisement providing apparatus comprises providing means for providing the advertisement information for the user and reception means for receiving a signal sent from the communication common carrier equipment, that the communication common carrier equipment comprises monitor means for monitoring the current position of the portable information terminal, reception means for receiving a signal from the portable information terminal, and a transmitter for sending an arrival notification signal to the advertisement providing apparatus when the portable information terminal arrives at a point in a predetermined area containing the store, and that the portable information terminal comprises an input section for inputting the advertisement information and transmission means for transmitting the advertisement information to the communication common carrier equipment.
The invention is characterized by the fact that in the advertisement information providing system, the identification number in the advertisement information contains geometrical position information of the store.
The invention is characterized by the fact that in the advertisement information providing system, the identification number in the advertisement information contains a code number assigned for each advertisement provider.
The invention is characterized by the fact that in the advertisement information providing system, when the advertisement information is input through the input section of the portable information terminal, the portable information terminal sends at least the identification number in the advertisement information to the communication common carrier by the transmission means.
The invention is characterized by the fact that in advertisement information providing system, the communication common carrier equipment further comprises an extraction section for extracting geometrical position information from the advertisement information transmitted from the portable information terminal, and comparison means for comparing the geometrical position information extracted by the extraction section with geometrical position information of the portable information terminal monitored by the monitor means, and the transmitter sends the arrival notification signal to the advertisement providing apparatus when the comparison means detects the portable information terminal arriving at a point in a predetermined area containing the store.
The invention is characterized by the fact that in the advertisement information providing system, when receiving the identification number from the portable information terminal, the communication common carrier equipment starts the comparison means.
The invention is characterized by the fact that in the advertisement information providing system, when the arrival notification signal is transmitted by the transmission means, the communication common carrier equipment terminates the monitoring of the monitor means.
To solve the problems described above, according to the invention, there is provided a communication common carrier server being connected in a communication-possible manner to an advertisement providing apparatus for collectively managing advertisement information requested by stores to be carried, with an identification number assigned for each of the stores, the communication common carrier server comprising monitor means for monitoring the current position of a portable information terminal, reception means for receiving a signal from the portable information terminal, determination means for determining whether or not the portable information terminal arrives at a point in a predetermined area containing the store, and a transmitter for sending an arrival notification signal to the advertisement providing apparatus.
The invention is characterized by the fact that in the communication common carrier server, when the reception means receives an identification number from the portable information terminal the monitor means starts monitoring.
The invention is characterized by the fact that in the communication common carrier server, when the determination means determines that the portable information terminal arrives at a point in the predetermined area containing the store, the transmitter sends the arrival notification signal to the advertisement providing apparatus.
To accomplish the objects, according to the invention, there is provided an information terminal used with an advertisement information providing system, the information terminal comprising a guide section for guiding a mobile into an advertisement object point based on provided advertisement information, and visit data transmission means, if the mobile arrives at a point in a predetermined range containing the advertisement object point as guided by the guide section, for transmitting visit data issued by the advertisement object to an advertisement providing apparatus distributing the advertisement information.
The information terminal further comprises advertisement showing means for displaying the provided advertisement information on a screen or guiding in a voice, and the visit data transmission means transmits advertisement providing data indicating that the corresponding advertisement information has been provided by the advertisement showing means to the advertisement providing apparatus together with the visit data.
The guide section sets a route based on the advertisement information and guides the mobile into the advertisement object point.
The visit data transmission means transmits position data when the mobile arrives at a point in the predetermined range containing the advertisement object point to the advertisement providing apparatus together with the visit data.
A portable memory card that can be attached to and detached from the information terminal for recording the visit data is used and when the memory card on which the visit data is recorded is attached to the information terminal, the visit data transmission means transmits the visit data to the advertisement providing apparatus.
The information terminal further comprises a data input section for entering an advertisement object code issued by the advertisement object as the visit data. When the advertisement object code is entered, the visit data transmission means transmits position data to the advertisement providing apparatus together with the advertisement object code.
To accomplish the objects, according to the invention, there is provided an advertisement information providing system comprising an advertisement providing apparatus for providing advertisement information and an information terminal for guiding a mobile into an advertisement object based on the provided advertisement information, characterized in that the advertisement providing apparatus comprises advertisement distribution means for distributing advertisement information and reception means for receiving a signal transmitted from the information terminal, and that the information terminal comprises a guide section for guiding the mobile into an advertisement object point based on the distributed advertisement information and visit data transmission means, if the mobile arrives at a point in a predetermined range containing the advertisement object point as guided by the guide section, for transmitting visit data issued by the advertisement object to the advertisement providing apparatus distributing the advertisement information.
The advertisement providing apparatus further comprises billing means for requesting an advertisement client of the advertisement object to pay an introduction fee if the advertisement providing apparatus receives the visit data from the information terminal.
The advertisement providing apparatus further comprises bonus giving means, if the advertisement providing apparatus receives the visit data from the information terminal, forgiving a bonus to the user of the information terminal as the user provides the visit data.
The advertisement information providing system further comprises advertisement client equipment managed by the advertisement client of the advertisement object, wherein the advertisement client equipment comprises visit data transmitter for sending the visit data to a portable memory card that can be attached to and detached from the information terminal for recording the visit data, and wherein when the memory card on which the visit data is recorded is attached to the information terminal, the visit data transmission means of the information terminal transmits the visit data to the advertisement providing apparatus.
The advertisement information providing system further comprises advertisement client equipment managed by the advertisement client of the advertisement object, wherein the advertisement client equipment comprises visit data issuing means for issuing an advertisement object code containing information concerning at least either of the advertisement object and the advertisement itself as the visit data, and wherein the information terminal further comprises a data input section for entering the issued advertisement object code.
To accomplish the objects, according to the invention, there is provided an advertisement information distribution apparatus of an advertisement providing apparatus used with an advertisement information providing system, the advertisement information distribution apparatus comprising advertisement distribution means for distributing advertisement information, reception means for receiving a signal transmitted from an information terminal for guiding a mobile into an advertisement object point based on the advertisement information, and bonus giving means, if visit data issued by the advertisement object is received from the information terminal, for giving a bonus to the user of the information terminal as the user provides the visit data.
The advertisement information distribution apparatus further comprises billing means for requesting the advertisement client of the advertisement object to pay an introduction fee if the visit data is received from the information terminal.
According to the invention, there is provided a program for causing a computer to be executed as means of an information terminal, an advertisement information providing system, or an advertisement information distribution apparatus as claimed in any of claims.
According to the configuration, the actual number of the persons visiting the advertisement object in response to the advertisement information can be known based on the visit data issued by the advertisement object indicating that each person sees the advertisement and visits the advertisement object, so that it is made possible for the advertisement client of a store, etc., to easily know the advertisement effect of attracting customers to the advertisement object. The advertisement providing data, the position data, and the like together with the visit data are transmitted, whereby it proves that reliably the user has seen the advertisement information and visited the advertisement object corresponding thereto, so that the reliability of the visit data can be enhanced.
As the visit data is transmitted and received, the advertisement provider requests the advertisement client to pay an introduction fee, whereby the expense responsive to the advertisement effect can be billed and paid and it is made possible to carry an advertisement with excellent cost effectiveness. Further, a bonus is given to the user of the information terminal as the user provides the visit data, whereby user's willingness to provide the visit data can be enhanced, so that the information of the advertisement effect in more conformity with the real state can be collected.